Mr D Forster v Mitie Limited — 2025

The claimant was dismissed following a disciplinary process concerning his handling of a lift entrapment incident at the Bentall Centre. The tribunal found that the respondent had a genuine belief, based on reasonable grounds following a reasonable investigation, that the claimant had failed to intervene when lift doors were opened, failed to ensure barriers or out-of-order signs were put up, failed to follow up with passengers after release, and brought the respondent into disrepute. Although one allegation about timely escalation to Crest was not reasonably supported, dismissal remained within the band of reasonable responses. The unfair dismissal complaint was dismissed.

The tribunal rejected the claimant's allegation that redundancy was the real reason for dismissal. It found the disciplinary and redundancy processes overlapped by coincidence, and that the incident, rather than a cost-saving exercise, led to the dismissal. The redundancy payment claim therefore failed.

For wrongful dismissal, the tribunal applied an objective test and found the claimant's conduct was not so grave and weighty as to justify summary dismissal. It noted that he was not responsible for the full period of entrapment, responsibility for calling the fire brigade rested with Control, and some failures were by direct reports. The wrongful dismissal claim succeeded, with remedy to be determined later.

The holiday pay claim succeeded in part. The tribunal found the claimant had accrued but untaken leave, had not been told about a use-it-or-lose-it policy, had been led to believe carry-over or payment in lieu was possible, and had been prevented by sickness and lack of reasonable opportunity from taking Regulation 13 leave. It found four weeks' leave carried forward and was payable on termination, but additional leave under Regulation 13A did not carry forward.